Jeff Rupert & Richard Drexler: R&D – Rupe Media (2018)

Held in the vault until now, Rupe Media is proud to release this set of intimately recorded and beautifully played standards in September of 2018.

Jeff Rupert’s performing and recording credits include associations with Diane Schuur, Mel Tormé, Kevin Mahogany, Ernestine Anderson, and Benny Carter’s Grammy winning Harlem Renaissance. Jeff Rupert toured for fifteen years with Sam Rivers; four albums ensued, and from 1997- 2002 he toured and recorded with Maynard Ferguson. Jeff Rupert’s nine recordings as a leader all charted on Jazz Week. Do That Again! was #39 out of the top 100 jazz albums of 2014, and En Plein Air: The Jazz Professors play Monet charted on Jazz Week to #29. Performance venues include the Blue Note, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Tokyo Forum, the National concert hall of Taipei, Taiwan, and jazz festivals in Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Rupert’s latest release Let’s Sail Away, with Veronica Swift, Richard Drexler and Marty Morell achieved #1 on the jazz charts.

As a composer and arranger, Rupert has written for Bob Berg, James Moody, Maynard Ferguson, Kenny Drew jr, Kevin Mahogany and Judy Carmichael. Rupert has produced four big band albums for the Flying Horse Big Band, all featuring original compositions and arrangements.

Rupert is Pegasus Distinguished Professor, Trustee Endowed Chair, and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and founder of Flying Horse Records. His latest release as director of UCF’s Flying Horse Big Band is The Bat Swings!, music from the 60’s T.V Show, Batman. The Album charted on RMR, JazzWeek, and NACC, and was the #1 album of the week in the U.S. on two of these charts, simultaneously.

“Jeff Rupert has a classic tenor sound, the virtuosity to execute practically any musical idea, and the imagination to make those ideas worth hearing.”-Ed Berger, the Institute of Jazz Studies.

“Jeff Rupert, he is dynamite!”-Mel Torme

“From the moment I first heard Jeff Rupert with my band I considered him one of the great jazz players of today.”-Maynard Ferguson

“Rupert is just the kind of soloist needed to spur a band on to heroic heights.”-George Kanzler, music critic, The Star Ledger

Richard Drexler is a pianist, bassist, vocalist and composer/arranger from Bloomington-Normal Illinois, and has resided in central Florida since 1985. He has performed on 200 recordings; piano in the Woody Herman Orchestra for over 20 years, bass in trios of Kenny Drew Jr., Dick Hyman and others. Richard has toured for 16 years as pianist with electric bassist Jeff Berlin, and regularly performs in eleven orchestras on seven instruments, and in diverse settings as a featured soloist with Cheap Trick, and Saigon Kick.

His playing has been favorably reviewed in DownBeat, Jazz Improv, Jazziz, Jazz Times, and in dozens of online publications. Richard is profiled in The New Face of Jazz, a Billboard (Random House) book by Cicily Janus with forewords by jazz legends Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Miller and Sonny Rollins, and has played with 40 of the other 100 featured players.

Richard is a faculty member at the University of Central Florida’s acclaimed jazz studies program, along with Marty Morell and Jeff Rupert. Richard holds a MM degree from UCF in composition.

“I have heard the future of Jazz, and it is Richard Drexler.”–Joel Chriss and Co., Jazz Times Magazine, 2004

Jeff Rupert and Richard Drexler are longtime music collaborators and friends. The music captured on R&D was a portion of two nights of music performed by saxophonist Rupert and pianist Drexler at the Timucua Arts White House in Orlando in June of 2015. Following on the heels of their album Imagination in 2017, which saw great success at radio and with critics, R&D is the second release from these concert dates. The tunes showcase the artistry, humor, skill and love of the music that these two outstanding musicians hold in abundance. Held in the vault until now, Rupe Media is proud to release this set of intimately recorded and beautifully played standards in September of 2018.

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Founded by Kari Gaffney in 1988, Kari-On Productions was created by musicians for musicians to give an even footing in the ever changing, ever-evolving music fabric. Music has expanded its ability and definition of “broadcasting,” and so have we. A 21st century way of thinking, we don’t look in the rear view mirror; we keep our eyes on the road ahead so we can watch the trends and keep you #trending.